Royal Roundup: Manchester, Kate’s Letter & the DoE Garden Party

Royal news was dominated this week by the wedding afterglow and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s first engagement as a married couple on Tuesday. Even so, there was actually a good bit activity from other members of the Royal family, so I’ve decided to wrap it up here!

First and foremost, the most important engagement conducted this week goes to the Duke of Cambridge, who traveled to Manchester on Tuesday to mark the one-year anniversary of last year’s terror attack. A commemoration service was held in Manchester Cathedral and William gave a reading:

On Monday, the Queen led several members of the RF with attending the Chelsea Flower Show. This is held every year by the Royal Horticultural Society, of which the Queen is patron, and alongside the Buckingham Palace garden parties is always a sign that we’re squarely in spring. The flower show is always a festive marker through London and the Chelsea neighborhood is currently all decked out with flower displays:

Usually the Duchess of Cambridge – if not William with her – attends, however she is still on mat leave, allowing greater focus on the other royals who turned up.

On Wednesday, one of Kate’s patronages, East Anglia Children’s Hospices (EACH), released a letter from her marking Children’s Hospice Week

It was accompanied by a portrait from the Cambridge family photo shoot last summer. We’ve seen a few snaps from the set over the last several months, including one of the couple with their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, which was released as their 2017 Christmas card.

Yesterday, the Earl of Wessex hosted two garden parties on behalf of his father for the Duke of Edinburgh award series, which was begun by the Queen’s husband in 1956. Fittingly, it was his youngest son who filled in for him now that he’s retired – Edward is slated to succeed his father as the Duke of Edinburgh one day.

Finally, there are two remaining bits of wedding goss worth covering. The first is that some are criticizing Meghan’s wedding dress for being too loose. Yeah, I’m going to trust Givenchy on this one. The material is relatively heavy and doesn’t have any stretch – if that bodice was taken in any more I feel like it would have creased and looked terrible when she was sitting down or walking up steps.

And lastly, I’m hearing rumblings of miffed minor and European royals who didn’t get an invite last weekend. Re: the minor Windsors, I don’t have much to offer on that front – I, too, thought it was a bit strange given that some of them are cousins who Harry grew up with at Kensington Palace and regularly sees. Re: the European royals, the argument is that the Windsors are invited to everything and usually only get Edward or Sophie (not Charles or his sons and their respective wives). And, sure, maybe, but I’m not sure how this supposed angst would be sourced – is there someone gossiping with the royal families of Denmark, Spain, Norway and Sweden? Because if so, I would like to become friends with that person. I think it’s much ado about nothing – William’s wedding was the generational headliner and there were definitely foreign royals in attendance.

As for upcoming events, there’s still no word on new engagements for Harry and Meghan, nor a date for Prince Louis’s christening, so we’ll see what ends up on the docket for next couple weeks. I would imagine the newlyweds have spent the last few days enjoying their out-of-town guests! At the very, very least, Trooping the Colour is just two weeks from Saturday. In the meantime, we’ll get some history into the mix.

I agree that the fit of her wedding gown was appropriate. I recognized it immediately as a true haute couture fit. In the USA, at least, woman have the unfortunate habit of wearing all their clothes way too tight, to the point where clothes that fit properly—skimming the body, not cutting off circulation—now appear “too loose” to their eyes. Even Michelle Obama often wore clothes that pulled and wrinkled because they were too tight. (And yes, I’m American, and yes, I thought she was a wonderful first lady.) The minimal seaming on Meghan’s gown also did not permit a close fit. Altogether, the gown fitted exactly as it was supposed to, and it looked wonderful.